Early Action (EA) – This application is NON-BINDING, which means that although students hear back earlier, they do not have to commit to a university until May 1.

Restrictive Early Action (REA) – This application is NONBINDING, so students are not obligated to attend if they are accepted; however, the student may only apply to one school REA and no other schools early.

Early Decision I (EDI) – This is BINDING, so if a student is accepted by their ED university, they must attend. A student is allowed to apply to only one school EDI. The benefit is that they can receive an admission decision at an earlier date. Applying Early Decision shows the university that the student is very interested, so this option may help the student in the admission process.

Early Decision II (EDII) – EDII is BINDING and is the same as EDI except that it has a later deadline than EDI. EDII is offered to students that are not sure if they want to fully commit to one school at the EDI date.

Regular Decision (RD) – RD is the most common process by which students submit their applications. If a student applies RD to a school, they are likely to receive their admission decision no later than April 1.

Waitlisted – If a student is waitlisted, it means that the university has reviewed their application and instead of denying or accepting the individual, the admissions team moves them to the waitlist, where they may or not be admitted to the school. A student may be waitlisted due to various factors, such as low test scores or GPA, poor writing supplements, or in a different case because the admission team feels that the student may not thrive in their learning environment.

Deferral – If a student applies to a school EA, REA, EDI, or EDII, they may be deferred to the RD pool of students. Getting deferred is not a bad thing — it simply means that the admission team is postponing the student’s decision and will review their application along with the RD applicants.